Well, the time has come to finally get the exadata configured. We are coming down the end, and we are still figuring out the network connections. The problem is the lack of 1ge ports.
The exadata comes with 4 1ge ports. 1 of which is reserved for the management (patching, monitoring etc). It also comes with 2 10ge ports. This is where the fun begins. Our standard is to bind 2 ports togethor for public (active-passive) for redundancy, then bond 2 ports for backup aggregating them to get 2ge speed, and have redundancy for the backup. How do we do this with 3 ports ? This leaves us with 3 choices.
1) Take the 2 10ge ports, and funnel them down to 2 1ge ports. Bond and aggregate these 2 ports togethor, and we have our 2 tan ports. We would be non-standard, and the only ones doing this as far as I know
2) Disable the management services, and utilze the 2 other 1ge ports for Tan. This means 2 ports 1ge for public bonded, and 1 ports for TAN bonded and aggregated. Again non-standard.
3) Utilize the 2 ports 1ge for public bonded, 1 management port, and only 1 tan port. This would be standard but the least desirable.
In looking at the documentation, it states
In any case this whole network configuration of the Exadata has been very confusing.
The exadata comes with 4 1ge ports. 1 of which is reserved for the management (patching, monitoring etc). It also comes with 2 10ge ports. This is where the fun begins. Our standard is to bind 2 ports togethor for public (active-passive) for redundancy, then bond 2 ports for backup aggregating them to get 2ge speed, and have redundancy for the backup. How do we do this with 3 ports ? This leaves us with 3 choices.
1) Take the 2 10ge ports, and funnel them down to 2 1ge ports. Bond and aggregate these 2 ports togethor, and we have our 2 tan ports. We would be non-standard, and the only ones doing this as far as I know
2) Disable the management services, and utilze the 2 other 1ge ports for Tan. This means 2 ports 1ge for public bonded, and 1 ports for TAN bonded and aggregated. Again non-standard.
3) Utilize the 2 ports 1ge for public bonded, 1 management port, and only 1 tan port. This would be standard but the least desirable.
In looking at the documentation, it states
When connecting the media servers to the Database Machine through Ethernet, connect the eth3 interfaces from each database server directly into the data center network. For high availability, multiple network interfaces on the database servers and multiple network interfaces on the media server can be bonded together. In this configuration, configure the eth3 interface as the preferred or primary interface and configure eth2 as the redundant interface.But this certainly doesn't explain what this means to bond eth2 and eth3. Is oracle suggesting not bonding public, and utilzing 2 of the 3 available ports for TAN, or are they suggesting backing up over LAN ?
If throughput is of a concern then connect both eth2 and eth3 interfaces from each database server directly into the data center’s redundant network. The two interfaces can then be bonded together in a redundant and aggregated way to provide increased throughput and redundancy.
In any case this whole network configuration of the Exadata has been very confusing.
